Retail media is entering a measurement phase where proving incremental business value is becoming as important as expanding media budgets. Advisar, a Bentonville, Arkansas-based startup focused on retail suppliers, has raised $750,000 in pre-seed funding to develop an independent decisioning and analytics layer for retail media investment.
The round was led by Austin-based Clutch VC, with participation from Venture Center Arkansas Fund, The Validation Fund at Winrock International, Rekall Capital and White River Capital Advisors, alongside angel investors Michael Paladino and Jeff Amerine. Advisar said the capital will support product development and go-to-market activity.
Founded by Christina Johnson, a former Chief of Staff to the general manager of Walmart Connect, Advisar is targeting a specific problem in the retail media ecosystem: suppliers often receive performance data from individual retail media networks but lack an independent way to evaluate those results alongside sales, promotions and broader marketing investment.
The company’s platform is designed to combine campaign, point-of-sale and promotional data into a performance model and translate those inputs into recommended budget actions. Advisar says its current product focuses on Walmart Connect data, with broader retail media network coverage planned as the platform develops.
That positioning puts Advisar in an increasingly crowded measurement market that includes retail media networks’ native reporting tools, agency analytics, business intelligence platforms, measurement vendors and emerging decisioning technologies. The distinction Advisar is attempting to establish is independence: rather than operating the media buy or reporting solely on a network’s own attribution model, it aims to help suppliers evaluate whether media investment is translating into incremental commercial outcomes.
Market Landscape
The measurement challenge is not unique to Advisar. The Interactive Advertising Bureau has identified fragmentation, inconsistent standards and measurement complexity as persistent obstacles to retail media’s maturation. In its 2023 research, 62% of surveyed retail media buyers cited the need for measurement standards as a major growth challenge, while 69% pointed to complexity in the buying process.
More recently, IAB has emphasized incrementality, data collaboration and advanced measurement as retail media expands. Its 2024 guidance points to methods including randomized controlled trials, match-market testing, counterfactual models and marketing mix modeling as ways to move beyond basic attribution.
The opportunity is substantial. Advisar cites a projection of $100 billion in U.S. retail media spending by 2028, while IAB’s broader commerce-media outlook continues to identify the channel as one of digital advertising’s fastest-growing segments.
Strategic Outlook
For suppliers managing significant retail media budgets, the next competitive advantage may increasingly come from deciding where not to spend. Independent measurement can potentially help advertisers identify duplicated attribution, distinguish demand capture from incremental demand and compare performance across networks.
The bigger challenge for Advisar will be proving that its recommendations consistently outperform conventional reporting and internal analytics. As retail media networks expand into off-site inventory, CTV and other channels, a useful measurement layer will also need to reconcile increasingly diverse signals without becoming another silo.
Advisar is currently in beta and expects general availability this fall. Its progress will offer an early indication of whether independent decisioning can become a meaningful layer between retail media platforms and supplier finance, marketing and sales teams.
Top Insights
- Measurement is becoming a retail media infrastructure issue, not simply a reporting function.
- Independent attribution could challenge network-reported performance, particularly as supplier budgets grow.
- AI decisioning is moving beyond dashboards toward recommended budget allocation and optimization.
- Cross-network normalization remains critical as suppliers diversify their retail media investments.
- Incrementality will increasingly matter alongside ROAS as finance teams demand stronger evidence of business impact.
FAQ
What is Advisar?
Advisar is an AI-enabled retail media decisioning platform designed to help suppliers evaluate media performance against sales and business outcomes.
Who is Advisar targeting?
The company initially focuses on retail suppliers, particularly businesses selling through Walmart and investing significantly in retail media.
What problem does Advisar address?
It aims to reconcile fragmented campaign, sales and promotional data and provide an independent view of retail media performance.
Why is retail media measurement becoming more important?
Retail media investment is growing while advertisers face fragmented platforms, inconsistent attribution and limited comparability across networks.
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